PACE Project

CLA Language Center

About PACE

Welcome to the PACE project! We’re thrilled to have you be part of this work at the University of Minnesota.

So, what is the PACE project?

PACE stands for The Proficiency Assessment for Curricular Enhancement project. It is funded by a grant from an organization called the Language Flagship, an organization with the goal of helping students reach high levels of proficiency in multiple world languages.

What does the PACE project mean for me as a student?

The PACE project is now in its fourth year. The majority of the language proficiency testing has ended, but we are still administering some ACTFL tests for students in the Certificate of Advanced Proficiency program and a small number of classes. Certificate students will take reading, listening, and speaking tests with PACE, and students in selected classes will take one or more of these tests as a component of their class. If you complete these tests you will receive an official rating on each.

Having these official ratings can be helpful to you in your academic and professional career for many reasons, among them:

In Minnesota, to become a licensed K-12 world languages teacher, you will need to reach the level of "Intermediate High" in oral skills. The proficiency requirement in other states may be the same. You will need to consult individual states for their requirement. At the University of Minnesota, you must reach the level of "Advanced Low" before beginning a licensure program, even if you have been pre-accepted into the graduate program via DirecTrack.

Another important part of the PACE project is self-assessment. In addition to taking the official ACTFL tests, you will take several self-assessments. We hope that taking these self-assessments will give you confidence in all the things you can do, and help you make goals for where you want to go in your language learning!